INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Green Technology
Starting smart city journeys with connected lighting
David Webber – Global Public Safety Expert , Huawei Enterprise Business Group , discusses how authorities can start their smart city journeys by implementing connected , energyefficient street lighting .
While a discussion around implementing smart city initiatives can often get city planners and managers excited about the opportunities that technology can enable , the budget available is often the biggest stumbling block to getting started .
However , the desire to move a nation ( or region or city ) higher up the value chain cannot be carried out as a single project . Authorities have to apply a long-term vision and then put in place the programmes and initiatives that are aimed at achieving their objectives . Beyond just looking at cost , cities need to look at what value these investments will bring .
This makes the transition toward becoming a smart city more of a journey with a travel guide , rather than a definite set of projects with fixed budgets and timeframes .
There are low hanging fruit that cities can take advantage of . To see the possibilities , it is important to know where the typical cities of today are burning money in their daily operations and tackling those challenges can improve operational efficiencies and provide dramatic cost savings .
The easiest place where authorities can start is with street lighting , which can fall into
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one of two categories : either there is none , but the city would love to install it , or they have existing lighting , but it doesn ’ t cover all areas and the infrastructure is expensive to operate and maintain .
Significant energy cost savings
The first change is fairly straightforward , the electricity utility can simply replace old fluorescent bulbs for new LED ones , which use less power and last longer with less maintenance required .
However , the ability for street lights to be part of an intelligent network – just like any other piece of network equipment is capable of , via the copper wire-based electricity network coupled with modern wide area narrow band NB-IoT control communications – is where the real advantages lie for city authorities or utility companies .
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